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Chapter 10: Meeting Your Ancestors

Chapter 10

Chausiku

03-12-2021

6 hours after chapter 7

The sun had already risen. It still hung low above the horizon, and coloured the cloudy morning sky orange and pink. Chausiku sat slumped on the front chair. Her rifle rested against the dashboard. She rubbed her eyes as she looked into the world from behind the windshield. The raining had stopped. They went up and down a range of hills in the rough terrain. The car handled even the most slippery and dangerous dirt roads well.

'Ah, look who decided to wake up,' said Kaiyan, who still kept his eyes fixed on the road whilst talking.

'How long was I out?' asked Chausiku with a sleepy voice.

'Somewhat five or six hours, I think. You slept softly.'

They drove into a clearing. The treeline on either side of the road crawled back and took distance, leaving the road to cut through a marshy field. The car hit a rock under the mud and shook heavily.

'I don't have a desire to die yet!' shouted Krotan, who stood behind the gun.

'Did he ever get down from that thing?' whispered Chausiku.

Kaiyan scoffed. 'Of course not.' They both chuckled.

'Krotan, aren't your legs feeling a little tired?'

There was a moment of silence from the gun station. Chausiku threw a glance over her shoulder. There was a pair of legs between a sleepy Tryo, who rested his head on his arms, and a dreamy Rita, who stared out of the back of the car.

'Maybe a little,' sounded Krotan's voice under the rumble of the engine. He shouted, but his voice was carried away so much by the wind that it sounded faint.

They shifted around in the wide car and Chausiku carefully climbed from her seat to the back of the car, after which she had to reach out and grab her rifle from the dashboard. Tryo took Chausiku's place in the front of the vehicle, so that he could get some sleep. Krotan sat down opposite Rita to give his legs a rest, and Chausiku stood up into a blast of fresh air as she climbed the mounted gun.

The dirt road started to transform into a gravel one. Chausiku felt the rough shaking and scarily slipping of the car becoming less and less as the road had more grip and evenness. The tall jungle trees towered above the ground and formed an intimidating wall on either side of the road. It made Chausiku feel a little trapped.

The clearing lasted another 20 minutes of driving, before the treelines started to close in on the road again. Chausiku felt the intimidation of the tall trees even more now. The quality of the road did not reduce, however. Chausiku's legs started to feel a little tired. Krotan had lasted 6 hours, and she had just been on the gun for shorter than 30 minutes. What joy he must have felt, to be distracted from the aches of standing. Then again, she had just been woken up from her sleep.

She decided to ask how long it was until the estimated arrival time. She got down and sat on her knees, also resting her upper legs a little in the process.

'Hey uh, Kaiyan, where are we actually going?'

'The Baranu Ruins. No-one knows about it as far as we are aware.'

Kaiyan kept his focus on the road. A driver had to remain focused and calm when driving on roads such as these, where any mistake could turn out to be fatal.

'How long is the drive from this position?' asked Chausiku.

'Maybe another hour,' replied Kaiyan.