Love & Greed

Chapter Seven

    We walk for few more hours, when my feet began to ache. I needed to stop and catch my breath. "Jasyn, we need a break even if its just a small one." I reasoned with him. I took a moment to take in our surroundings, we've been staying off the main road ever since Jasyn saw the hawk so we've been walking in tall growth. I make just big enough clearing on the ground so we can sit comfortably and I drop to the ground and sigh, I was already tired of walking and I missed my bed. "How close are we, Jasyn?" It feels so long ago since we started this journey even though it's only been a few days since we started out.

"It shouldn't be but another day before we get into the town. If we don't take anymore breaks and keep walking we could reach the outskirts by daybreak tomorrow." He says, sitting down his self. I pull my knees up and grab my foot and began to massage it, it was throbbing with each touch.

"How do you know the way to this town?" I asked, the more I thought about it, the more the question struck a cord. How did he know? Only the older hunters ever left the village. Was his dad a hunter? I couldn't remember.

"I used to go on supply runs with my grandfather and father all the time." Okay, makes more sense. "They would quiz me on the path up to the town just to pass the time, so it stuck with me."

"Oh, lucky you." I say not knowing what else to say.

    "Lucky us." He mutters. I'm no empath but it seems like he's still salty about early this morning. I roll my eyes and chose to ignore it. He would get over it soon enough.

"When we get to town, then what?" I didn't have any money and the only thing I knew how to do was grow things. Yet my plan was to stay under the radar as much as possible, as a runaway refugee, not the Chosen One. I wasn't going to let anyone know who or what I was, never again. "I'm not planning on telling anyone about who or what I am, so make sure you don't say anything either."

He nods, "I have a cousin who runs an inn, I think they'll let us stay there, but my plan was telling them who you are so that they wouldn't charge us. We don't have any money at all."

"Absolutely not." I interject, "No one is to know of who I am, not even your family." I warned him. "We can offer work in exchange for board. I will do my own talking."

He narrows his eyes a little but doesn't object to my plan. "They would protect you better if they knew who you were but we'll go with your plan for now."

"I do not need protection, Jasyn. Nor do I want it." I dig through my bag, trying to fix the mess that was just tossed into it and grabbed the last two apples. I offer one to Jasyn and he takes it without a word. Yeah, he's definitely salty.

* * *

We stayed there only a moment more before we started walking again. Something about Jasyn's whole demeanor had changed ever since this morning, he was more standoffish, he wasn't as talkative nor as friendly. He kept his distance in front of me, causing me to follow behind. It was frustrating to say the lease, I didn't have anyone to talk to. At this point I longed to hear the voice that comes in my dreams. Something about it was so alluring and almost hypnotic, yet very familiar, like I've heard it before. Even before it started taking over my dreams, nothing about it seemed dangerous, despite it knowing me and telling me that they were my Fated One and I, their Chosen One. I didn't dare to try and start that conversation with Jasyn, he would only ask questions I didn't have answers to and worry more. Maybe they had a library.

    The scenery began to blur to the back of my mind as I lose myself in train of thought, before I knew it, it was the evening, we reached the base of a small mountain, a tall hill at best, when Jasyn finally decides to talk, "it'll take longer but we can circle around to stay out of sight."

    "Take longer?! Why would we want to take longer, Jasyn?! Let's just climb the damn hill, so we get there!" This is nonsense, I'm tired of all this walking and sleeping on the ground and I was tired of seeing trees.

    "Seriously, Rhiannon?" Jasyn whipped around. "You'd rather risk getting sighted? If you get caught heading into the town, you risk putting the whole town in danger! Then where are we going to go, Rhiannon?" He snapped, unleashing his pimped up anger at me.

    I stayed silent as I glared at him, I felt stupid for not thinking of that, but I won't admit that to him. "I'm at my wits end, Jasyn, and my feet are throbbing. Excuse me for wanting to rest, dammit."

He sighs and rubs his eyebrows in frustration. "It only adds a couple hours, we can take a rest and then keep moving around the mountain." He drops his stuff to the ground. "I'll take watch while you take a small nap."

"I don't need a nap," I need a bed, "We can keep moving."

    "I plan on taking one after you, so either way, rest and then allow me to do the same." He said, sitting down without waiting for a reply from me. I sigh, if he stays like this I'm going to throw rocks at him until he stops being so moody. I sit down and lay my head on my bag facing away from him. It felt as if when I decided to closed my eyes, Jasyn woke me up to switch watch. I sigh, getting restless and annoyed at the walking, running and hiding, when was it going to end? I let him sleep for another hour and woke up him to start moving again.

"Do you still think it too risky now that its darker?" I asked before we headed around the mountain. He looked up and really pondered it. "I'd rather not risk it, Rhiannon." He says softly, I easily could tell that he wouldn't put up much of a fight if I tried to argue but he was just as tired as I was, of this feud and of this journey. I decided to compromise and just nodded, letting him lead the way once more. The more time wasted, the longer we were exposed, he was right about that, and I didn't want to be responsible for an entire towns destruction—again. Jasyn noticed my increased speed and matched it. I wasn't planning on sleeping on the cold hard ground as long as I could help it.