Prophecy of Death

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5: THE RIGHT WAY

They journeyed on and on upon the horses. Their identities had been kept secret. The lush green forest capture them in, paving their way through miles of lands. They had been riding for half a day without any brake, but no one seemed to be tired. On quite the contrary…
Reuben never had this much fun in life. He’d hang around all kinds of wrong people. You name it and he’d have been there. Just not the innocent. Amara, the redhead, honestly looked like a puffed up squirrel, and a red one at that. Every time he teased around, her or not, or said anything not appropriate, she’d blush to the roots of her hair, which incidentally were red. She’d be the perfect proper lady example.
He didn’t think she’d ever witnessed anything very stressing. He wondered why she was even one of them. She wouldn’t last a day outside if it weren’t for the fact that he or the rest were with her.
Raven, on the other hand looked somewhat alike to a siren. Beautiful, irresistible, but say anything to piss her off and you’d fly to hell and back. He didn’t want to cross her. She looked like a very scary mother, and he’d had his share of scary mothers. Steal a candy and they’d go on and on and burst your ears off with their reprimanding. Well, Raven didn’t really mind him stealing candy, not that there was any in the first place, she’d encourage him in fact, but he learned the hard way not to lay a hand on her, comment her or piss her off.
Zayn was the spiritual one. He’d had a very sheltered life. At least according to Reuben. Raven and his beliefs often clashed. She didn’t believe in gods, let alone the ‘garbage’ that came out of the ‘haggy old fools’’ mouths. Zayn on the other hand would follow every one of the ‘haggy old fools’’ (that being the very priests that set them on this journey, ‘torture’ according to Raven) commands. He believed in gods, very much.
Damon, the merchant, would simply keep quite. Reuben felt uncomfortable. He knew if someone lied. After all, being a thief meant his whole life was a lie. Damon was a very good actor, he admitted. He’d almost believed him when he said he was a merchant. But Reuben’s instinct said otherwise. And living on the streets meant trusting one’s instincts more than any words or oath.
Then came the very last, unexpected and most intriguing tiny member of their little travelling group. Sariel sat in front of Raven, soundly sleeping with her head on Raven’s chest. He wondered why she’d been tagged along. The little twelve year old did nothing to hide her shyness and displeasure around them. She seemed to know Raven and she seemed to stick with her. Zayn just eyed the girl. He talked to her once in a while and she quietly answered with little to no words. Amara didn’t mind her presence, but didn’t talk either. They’d make a good pair. Both shy enough to not say anything, and if kept in a room together, silence would reign. Damon simply ignored her, as if he didn’t care, which he probably didn’t. He’d keep glancing at them every once in a while though.
At first, it was quite. Then-
“We should be reaching Alpheus soon. The town is nearby. There, we can stay for the night then continue on.” The ever-dependent guide said.
“If it weren’t for the fact that we were to keep a secret of who we are, we could have just entered through the main gates.” Amara sighed. “Now we have to go all the way through a forest.”
“What about after Alpheus?” Raven asked.
“We are lucky to have that lonely little town in the way. We need to save up all the money we have, and gather more products if we can without losing anything. I hope you all are good at gambling. We wouldn’t have a stop after Alpheus for days.”
“That means we will have to live in camps, Use whatever you have to appropriately to gather the right products for seven days.”
“Seven days? How do you know that?” Reuben spoke up.
“Judging by the speed of the horses and the time taken by them to cross this distance, finding out how long it will take for us to reach Inferno is not that hard. Of course, taking in account that by this very speed is what we will travel and the fact that we will have to sleep at night, stop for a few minutes to let the horses rest, then continue on with just the right amount of energy and time. Excluding all that, we could have crossed the forest in three and half day without any rest or sleep or stops in between.”
They stared. And stared. And stared yet again. Amara blushed. She couldn’t keep it in. She shouldn’t have said that, would they think of her as someone strange? Would they keep their distance?
“Will there be any entertainment bars?” Damon asked, breaking the silence.
“Probably, but don’t waste your money on them. It is also known for its churches.”
“Are you going to sleep there too, in order to save up money?” Raven questioned.
He gritted his teeth. “No.” Zayn said. “We’ll stay in a motel nearby and sleep there.”
Reuben knew Amara was glad to have them back to normal, her no longer being in the spotlight.
“Oh? So, no church visits?”
“Why, do you suddenly feel the intense pressure of visiting god and cleansing your ever-going sins?”
It was Raven’s chance to clench her fists. “As if!” She said. “I have no sins. I was just worried that a pretty little perfect boy would tear my ears off if he didn’t get his usual dose of godliness.”
Amara giggled. Even Damon had a smile on his face. They didn’t seem to care. Reuben went on ahead, or at least tried to, when Amara warned, “Don’t get in between.” He didn’t listen.
“Usual dose of godliness? You don’t seem to take any so I have to take another for your sake!”
“I didn’t ask you to overflow your already full of worshipping tiny little brain to take one for me. As if you weren’t obsessed enough.”
“Obsessed? Obsessed my ass!” He seethed.
Raven smiled. “Dear, dear. Someone seems to be losing the fire from their two ear engines. Are you alright dear God worshipper? Do you know the many number of years you’d rot in hell for this very curse?”
“I won’t be the only one rotting. You’d get tortured with me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, dear.” She said with a sickly sweet smile. “Hell is my domain. I’d be the one torturing you.” She purred.
“There, there.” A grinning Reuben intervened. “Do you know you fight like an old married couple? My, my, do you fancy each other?”
“No!” “Absolutely not!” the said couple snapped.
Raven groaned. “What kind of a buffoon maniac do we have for a thief?”
Zayn sighed, “I can agree with you there at least.”
Amara, no longer feeling pressured, was full on laughing, keeping careful of not falling off her horse. Even Damon chuckled. 
Reuben looked shocked. He’d come to resolve the fight. He didn’t expect them to turn on him.
Amara caught up. “That’s why I told you not to intervene.” She said with a cheeky smile.
“Those insolent companions!” He said. “I only tried to mediate things between them, not make them turn against me!”
“Sweet talking, I see.” She replied.
“Hey, I didn’t sweet talk!”
She shot him a look.
“Okay, okay. I did sweet talk, but only to have them reconcile and not tear each other’s throats off.”
“Correction.” She said. “You tried to sweet talk. That obviously didn’t work very well.”
“What can I do? Like any normal lady, Raven was supposed to blush. Zayn was supposed to be smug, and at the end, stop talking, thus, no fighting.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You do know that Raven isn’t any other normal girl, don’t you?” At first, they were dumbfounded by her character, but got used to it. She was certainly eccentric, but her straightforward trait made it easier for them to talk to her. She’d lay out the truth of what she saw, and wasn’t afraid to say what was on her mind. As said before, Reuben thought she was eccentric, but good company.
“Well, in any case, the method you use is not very important, as long as you get the end result right. At least not in such situations, science is different. You wanted them to stop fighting, and they did stop arguing about different faiths and beliefs. Good work!” Amara said. 
“Thanks, know-it-all.” He said. She smiled happily.
As he thought before, this trip would definitely be fun.