Into That Wild Blue Yonder

29. Alone Together

The sun dipped below the horizon and cast a deep shadow across the land, rendering anything on the ground nearly invisible and the sky a deep shade of orange and red. The stark contrast stood out to Colm, driving loose thoughts through his head about what hides in darkness and how he was starting to miss it himself. Though, he did not miss it as much as he expected.

"Let's pull over here for the night," Idara said, thumbing at a flat space among some bushes. "Should be easy enough to set up here."

Colm followed wordlessly and started setting up his tent while Ulan started a fire pit and Idara scrounged up some branches for a fire. Ulan dug a massive hole for the fire and Idara had to grab every scrap of burnable material she could find, so when Colm finished his tent, he joined her in the task. They didn't find all that much, but there were also some small trees around, so they only needed a little to at least get a fire going.

Once they had the fuel, they set it up just right and Ulan spat some fire to give them some light and warmth. Idara started setting up her own tent and Colm plopped down next to the fire and crossed his legs for a brief bit of meditation.

"There, all done," Idara said a few minutes later. Ulan set his sleeping mat on the ground and had his blanket and pillow besides since they couldn't get a tent big enough for him, at least one they could easily travel with. "Get some food in us for the night, sleep it off, and we should hit one of those towns tomorrow by lunch."

"I didn't think travelling by carriage would be so much faster," Ulan said. "I thought we'd hit a town on day one. Good thing we packed lots of extra food."

"Yeah, but not food I'm enjoying anymore," Idara said with a face full of disappointment as she pulled out a bag of jerky. "Dried meat and nuts are gonna give me indigestion from all this salt."

"I'll be happy with a cold beer," Colm said.

"Amen to that," Idara replied. "I'd've brought some bourbon for the cold, but I didn't want to risk giving up something important for it."

"I'd always rather eat than drink," Ulan said.

"Speak for yourselves," Colm said with a snort.

"What, you packed something?" Idara asked rhetorically.

"No," Colm answered. "Wishing I had, though."

"Well, you can wait another night," Ulan said. "It's better for you not to drink anyway. It's actually way worse for you than you think."

"I'm sure it is."

"I think it's like, five drinks in a sitting for men is bad? You're liver won't recover properly if you drink again over like a week."

"Noted."

"Maybe you'd lose that dad bod of yours if you drank less," Idara joked.

"I don't know what that means."

"It means you look like a dad," Idara continued. "You got a belly, Colm. Not a huge one, but it's there nonetheless."

"How tragic," Colm said as he reached into his pack for dinner.

"Hey, some ladies like it," Idara said with a shrug. "No judging here."

"I don't believe that."

"What? The ladies liking it, or the no judging?"

"Either."

"Fair," Idara said with a chuckle. "Hey, do you guys think there's any game out here?"