𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐎𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 | 𝐉𝐨𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 - 𝐓𝐋𝐎𝐔

𝐀 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐬.

𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑.

𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐎.

𝐂𝐈𝐑𝐈.

I rode behind Joel and Ellie while they talked baseball on our approach to the university.

I was hyper-aware of every little thing; the birds and squirrels in the trees and grass, the rustling of the leaves in the trees and the way the horses hooves clattered against the road.

I'd woke up this morning with a gut feeling about today, and it had only grown more the closer we got to the university.

I hadn't mentioned it to Joel yet, but that man could read me like a book. He'd been sending glances over to me every couple of minutes the entire ride and continued to as we rode through the entrance to the university campus.

"Okay, none of these buildings look like a mirror to me." Ellie gazes up and around.

"Well, we'll head to central grounds. Should be able to see most of the campus from there." Joel says as we take a sharp right and come across a garage.

Me and Joel both dismount, deciding to check for supplies and any sign of Fireflies.

"Stay, Callus." Joel utters to the bay gelding. "What kind of name is Callus, anyways?"

"Not my fault you forgot to ask Tommy his name." Ellie throws her hands up in defence.

"Callus..." he mumbles. "Couldn't you have come up with somethin' better? Like somethin' more simple or with significance like Ciri did?"

"Callus is just a simple and significant as Paris is." Ellie argues.

I chuckle softly, patting my mare's neck and running my fingers through her mane. She had a pretty dapple grey coat, which reminded me of one of the horses on Charles's farm back in Arizona. And since Charles is from France, I thought it only reasonable to name her after the capitol. It definitely suited her.

Joel grumbles away to himself as we walk up and into the garage to investigate.

We pick up a few things lying around and use the workbench to give our gear a good clean over. Then as I come across a stairwell and go to check it out, Joel takes my hand to stop me moving ahead.

"Hey, you wanna tell me what's goin' on with you?" He asks softly.

I sigh deeply and finding myself relaxing a little when I meet those beautiful hazel eyes of his. "Sorry I've been quiet, I just... I just have a bad feeling about this."

"Bad feelin' about what?"

I shrug in slight annoyance as I let out a small exasperated breath. "That's the thing - I don't know what exactly. It's just this awful gut feeling like something bad is gonna happen. And... it's the same feeling I got right before Peter died."

He lets out a quiet breath and nods a little. "Well, I trust your instinct, so... we'll just have to be extra careful. I don't know what else we can do."

I nod along. "I know, me neither... but just stay close to me and make sure Ellie does too."

"'Course." He lifts my hand up to kiss my knuckles which instantly brings a smile to my face.

We head up the stairs and come across a lookout on the second balcony with a bunch of notes from whoever had been sat here reporting. There was no indication of it belonging to Fireflies but it was something.