Caught in Time

Chapter XVIII: The Converging Paths

At the same time Alicia was trying to persuade Lily to lend her the forbidden teleportation scroll, the 'hunting party' were preparing themselves to continue their journey. They planned to leave their campsite early in the morning so that they could arrive at Solano tonight. As usual, Rosa prepared their breakfast before waking everyone up.

"*yawn* Morning Rosa, what are we having for breakfast today?", asked Irina, still sleepy in her pajamas, as she walked out of her tent.

"Good morning Lady Irina, today's breakfast is your favorite, my special potato pancakes", answered Rosa while handing a plate of pancake to Irina.

"Sweet!", said Irina excitedly.

"Morning, Princess Irina, looks like you finally decided to wake up *laughs*", greeted Kyleas.

"Ah morning, Kyleas. Where is Adran?", she asked.

"He's scouting ahead. He should be back here any moment", replied Kyleas.

After Irina finished her breakfast, she quickly changed back to her adventuring gear. Kyleas, Irina, and Rosa then cleaned their campsite and put everything back in Kyleas' interdimensional storage room. Not long after, Adran returned to the campsite.

"The road ahead is clear, if everything goes well, we should be able to arrive at Solano even earlier than we predicted", said Adran.

"Nice, I can't wait to get there. Kyleas, you said your friend should already be there right?", asked Irina.

"Well, she should, I'll try to get in contact with her the first thing we get there. Why do you ask, Princess Irina?", replied Kyleas.

"Nothing hehe. I'm just eager to see her", said Irina.

"Oh by the way, I'm still waiting for your alternative plan to get us to the Gvaz Islands, Irina. Hehe", Adran suddenly told her.

"Ah right... I'm still thinking about it...", she replied.

The 'hunting party' then proceeded to get a move on. Throughout the day, they walked the only road that stretched from North Castillo to Solano, past several merchant caravans heading the other way. Pushing through the dense forest, crossing mighty rivers and small creeks, and fighting a group of lowly bandits, they didn't stop for anything and nothing can stop them, except for lunch time that is.

As they stopped to have a lunch at a quite large clearing, Irina immediately sat down at the grassy field looking exhausted. Rosa tried to tend to her, but Irina insisted that she's fine and told Rosa not to worry. Adran could see that she was not in her best shape.

"Irina, you could've just told me if you needed a rest so badly", said Adran.

"No no, I'm fine. We can continue once we had our lunch", replied Irina as she was holding her right foot.

"What happened to your foot? Did you twist your ankle or something?", he asked again.

"Maybe. I mean, I did get tripped by that overgrown vines somewhere around the last creek we crossed. Good thing I didn't fall into the water and get wet *laughs*", she said.

"I see. But by your wording, you make it sound like those vines tripped you on purpose *laughs*", said Adran jokingly.

"Hey I told you before that I swear those vines literally moved to trip me up! But none of you believed me *pouts*", she exclaimed.

"Hehe I'm sorry for also laughing at you back then, Princess Irina...", said Kyleas.

"But thinking about it now, I guess it is not entirely impossible considering very high levels of corruption already spreading around these woods", he added.