Tremorndin was coming closer for every passing hour but the journey over the vast fields was a long and exhausting one. After they had passed the few farms closer to Crowuld, the fields were empty and void of any life as the soil got less and less fertile. The grass was getting paler and dryer. It felt like they had just been walking along the straight road for hours and it was starting to wear all of them out. But according to Woojin's map, and Felix's memory, they would reach the Norrwuld river soon.
Despite the exhausting journey, it brought Felix some kind of comfort as well. The further north they traveled, the safer they would be. Just passing Tremorndin wouldn't guarantee a safe journey ahead, but it would be safer than it had been previously.
"So," Chan began quietly as he walked beside Felix, his hand brushing against Felix's. "What do you think about Woojin and Jeongin?"
"I like them," Felix said, glancing over to Chan. Chan hummed, nodding his head a little. "I think it's good that we're more people traveling, considering your injury," he murmured, gesturing to Chan's abdomen. The injury was healing up, but Chan was still unable to shift and Felix wished they didn't need to travel like this. "And they're good people, I think."
"I like them too," Chan said and Felix nodded, a small smile twitching on his lips. "Like you said, it's good to travel with more people. It feels... safer."
Felix opened his mouth to reply but Jeongin suddenly stopped walking.
"There's people coming our way," Jeongin said, eyes flickering between Felix, Chan and Woojin. Chan gave Felix a glance before pulling his hood up; Jeongin quickly followed suit. Felix, his gaze still fixed at the silhouettes approaching, pulled out his gloves from his bag and quickly slipped them on to hide the scarring on his hands.
"Let's just try to pass them as calmly as possible," Woojin said cautiously, looking over at Felix who nodded slowly. He couldn't see more than the silhouettes. There were six of them, five of them in the front and it looked as if the sixth one was being pulled behind the others. Along with them was a horse and a wagon. It looked odd.
Felix gave Woojin a worried look, doubt and fear swirling in his stomach as the six silhouettes grew closer. He didn't have a good feeling about this.
"I don't like this," Felix said, leaning a bit closer to Woojin as they continued to walk along the road. "That looks like guards," he breathed, fear running down his spine as realization hit him. The five figures at the front were all wearing the symbol of Penzance, the capital of the human kingdoms and leader of the war against the dragons.
This was bad.
They were so close now, so close that Felix, Woojin, Chan and Jeongin moved over to one side of the road to give the approaching strangers space. Woojin raised his hand to casually greet them and the one walking in the front did the same. Felix still couldn't make out if the sixth person was also one of the guards.
"Hello, gentlemen," Woojin greeted, giving the guards a nod as they finally met on the road. The guards stopped and Felix's heart was hammering in his chest, blood rushing in his ears. What if they were found out?
"Hello," the guard in the middle greeted, looking the six of them over. "Traveling north are we?" he asked and Felix nodded mutely, his mouth dry.
"And you're..." Woojin trailed off, looking over the guard's shoulder to the figure behind them. Felix couldn't see their face, as it was lowered and obscured by their long brown hair but he could clearly make out the shackles around their wrists. They were wearing simple traveling clothes that were worn from use and a green cloak pulled over all of it. They looked like any normal person. Felix swallowed hard.
